Chapter One: Ring around the Rosie

Chapter One: Ring around the Rosie

 

            Leann rapped on her son’s door, breathing heavy.

She didn’t know what she would say to him. A business trip? A vacation in Hawaii? Leaving him was the hardest thing she would have to do.

Derek opened the door; a grimace on his sleepy face.

            “It’s nearly six in the morning, what do you want?” He grumbled. Leann smothered a laugh with a cough. Derek was such your average fifteen year old. He thought everyone was trying to conspire against him. Maybe he wasn’t far off…

            “I’m in a hurry, Derek. There’s so little time to explain a lot. Can I come in?” She peeked in his room. It wasn’t a surprise she couldn’t see his wooden floor.

            “Whatever.”

            Slightly wary, Leann made her way through the mountains of t-shirts and underwear to his bed. “I thought I told you to clean your room.” She scolded him half heartedly.

            He just shrugged, and looked at his mother, with an expression of curiosity and wariness. Derek was usually the first one up in the morning. “Well, what do you want to explain?”

            Coming back to the task ahead of her, she shivered slightly. “I called your Aunt Bree. She’ll be here by tonight. I called her because I have to…leave for just a little while.” Leann looked at the piles of clothes, instead of her son.

            “Okay.”

            Shocked, she faced him, “Okay?”

            “This isn’t the first time you’ve sent Aunt Bree to watch me, while you go to Vegas with you friends.” Derek’s voice was hard, his face cold.

            “Right…well, I also wanted to give you this.” She pulled out a velvet case out of her pocket. Her eyes became watery all of a sudden; she didn’t think she would become emotional.

            “At least you won’t have to get me a souvenir from Sin City. Nope, because I got a fantastic, magical box!” Derek’s voice leaked with sarcasm.

            Ignoring this, she handed it to him. “It’s not the box; it’s what’s in it.”

            He took it roughly, and opened it. He stared at it for awhile, unable to speak. Inside the velvet casing was a ring, nestled inside the box. It had a gold, thick band, and a ruby gem that seemed to shimmer in the dim lighting of his room.

 Finally, he managed to come up with a sarcastic remark. “You expect me to wear a ring? I thought you voted YES on Prop 8.”

            “It’s not a ring for a women, it was your fathers,” she replied patiently.

            It felt the room dropped ten degrees. Whenever it came to discussing his father, Derek became very vulnerable. And to hide his vulnerability, he became angry.

            After a moment he answered slowly, “Why are you giving this to me?”

            “I think you’re old enough to have it. Besides it’s been passed from father to son for as long as your father’s family tree goes.”

            “Passed from father to son, not mother to son. Besides he’s not here to give it to me.”

            “I’m sure he would want me to give it to you.”

            “What’s the point anyways? It’s not like I’m ever going to wear it. Maybe I can sell it…” He said, eyeing his mother dubiously.
            “No you’re not! This ring is special.” Leann said hotly, sometimes her son went too far.

            “Fine, fine!” He answered, surrendering. “What’s so special about it?”

            Leann thought through her answer, before she said anything. If she told him something that gave him too much insight on the ring, Damien could get a hold of it. If she didn’t say anything at all, he would leave the ring vulnerable.

            “This ring is known to help the owner search for whatever the owner desires. And I can say from experience it works, otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”

            “So, it’s some imaginary thing?”

            “Not imaginary, it’s very much real. But, to find what you want, doesn’t come as easy as it sounds. The ring just helps. It gives you options.”

            “You’re not making any sense, you know that right?”

            She sighed, “Hopefully you won’t need to know what I’m talking about. But if you ever feel…threatened, just think through what I said.”

            “Alright.”

            “And whatever happens, never leave the ring out of your sight. Don’t even leave it here, when you go to school. Not even when you’re in the shower. Promise?”

            “Yeah, sure. But I’m not wearing it to school. None of the girls will look at me twice if they see this on my finger.”

            “You’ll figure it out, just never leave it alone.” She got up from her son’s dirty bed, and looked down at him. Her eyes welled with tears, as she kissed his forehead. “Love you.” She blinked the tears away.

            “Me too,” Derek said softly. “When will you come back?”

            “Soon.”

            “Then I’ll see you soon, mom.”

            Leann turned away from him and walked out quickly. Hopefully he would take his promise seriously. There was no way Damien would expect Derek to have the ring.

           

* * *

 

“Hey, Derek!” Jamie Mathews skipped next to Derek’s side.

“There’s my best friend, where were you during homeroom?” He put his arm lightly around her shoulder. He grinned down at her; she was so small.

Jamie was his best friend since he was in Kindergarten. She hadn’t changed much since she was six, except in height, and maturing in other places. Jamie still had the mousy brown hair, the blue, yellow eyes. Her skin still a creamy white.

Her expression was mutinous when she said, “I was showing my cousin, Rebecca, around the school.”

“You don’t like her.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

She forced a laugh. “Is it that noticeable?”

“Not really. Have you ever heard of the saying, If looks could kill…?” he grinned wider, as they walked towards first period together. Science class…his worst subject.

“Yes-,” She was caught off short, when a beautiful girl stepped in front of them. “Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear,” she mumbled.

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend, toe jam?” Rebecca said sweetly looking from Derek to Jamie.

Derek took his arm off of Jamie’s shoulder and added quickly, “Oh, were not together. Just friends.” He shot his smile in Rebecca’s direction.

She was probably the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Definitely not your average Plain Jane. Her hair tumbled in simple, brown waves down her back. Her eyes a perfect green, the pupils dilated slightly. She was tall, athletic, with perfect tan skin.

“Aw, that’s too bad. It seems toe jam can never snag a good looking guy.”

“I thought I told you to never call me, toe jam!” Jamie’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears. She glared at her cousin, and stormed off. Derek was about to go after her when Rebecca grabbed his arm. “We should hang out sometime.”

“Sure, Rebecca. I should get to class though.”  

“Call me, Becca. And your name…?”

“Derek.”

“See you soon, Derek.” She waved at him as he went after her cousin. She grinned wickedly.

Derek stepped into his class just as the bell rang. He skirted across the room and sat next to Jamie. She was staring angrily at the floor. He didn’t know what to say to her. He never really had experience with comforting females. They were always so…hormonal.

The lesson was about the laws of attraction. His teacher, Mr. Hinrichs explained it in simple terms and walked towards Derek and Jamie’s table.

“As you can see we have a male,” he gestured to Derek, “-and a female,” he gestured to Jamie. “Both of their brains are responding to each other, naturally. His brain is going through the infinite details of her body.” The class sniggered. “This is to process the fact if he wants her to produce his children, and the same goes with the female brain. Except their brains are pickier.”  He laughed throatily, as Jamie turned a light pink.

Derek didn’t get why they were studying the reproductive system. It was rather simple; it was just a waste of time to go into so much…detail. He shuddered.

The were given worksheets, and were ordered to complete it by the end of the Period. The class filled with light chatter as they began to read the directions.  

“She’s always called me Toe Jam. It’s so annoying, and now she has to live here!” Jamie fumed as she flipped through the text book for answers.

“Why did she move here?”  He asked lightly, any information about Becca would help him out.

“Her parents thought she’d have a better chance at her acting and modeling career in California. She’s not even that good. Okay, she’s been in a few commercials and guest starred on some soap operas. But not that many…”

Derek snorted. “We live in L.A, so what? I haven’t even visited Hollywood in my fifteen years.”

She sighed. “Yeah, well she plans on living there soon. And no matter how much I hate her career choice, I rather have her out of the house.”

“Mhmm, do you know what number 11 is?”

“‘The uterus is a fluid sack in the females’ body that carries the unborn fetus.’ Don’t copy it word for word.”

“Thanks, so has anyone asked Becca to the dance yet?” He said nonchalantly.

Jamie glared at him. “Becca has been asked out several times, and it’s only her first day. But she’s turned all of them down. Why do you want to know?”

“I don’t know, just curios.” He looked away quickly.

“Oh.”

To his great pleasure the bell rang. He bent down to pick up his backpack, when the chain slipped out from under his shirt. He tried to tuck it back in quickly, but Jamie had noticed. “What’s that?”

“Nothing.” He replied innocently.

“It fell from under your shirt, a ring on a chain.”

“No.”

“Derek you’re lying to me! I can see it on your face that you are keeping something from me. Something important.”

 Derek looked around the empty classroom before he pulled the ring out from under his black t-shirt. He clipped the chain off, and passed it to her. The ring swung on it, into Jamie’s hand.

“Why do have this?” She asked, as she held the ring into the light, to see it better.

“My mom gave it to me before she left this morning to Las Vegas. Apparently it belonged to my dad, and it’s special. She told me to keep it on me at all times.”

“Why would your Dad have a ring like this? I can’t imagine him wearing it in the army.”

Derek snatched the ring back, before she attempted to put it on herself. “That’s what I thought. Its weird, isn’t it? That my mom gave me this out of the blue, and left.  Usually I know when she’s planning something with her girl friends, because she would have been chatting with them on the phone.”

Jamie’s face softened. “You don’t think she left, left. Like gone for good?”

“No, she said she’d be home soon. Whatever that means.”

“We should get going; this classroom feels a little chilly. Come on,” she tugged at his arm nervously. The room had gotten very cold.

“Yeah, we can’t be late for English. Ms. Eberle will kill us.”

The walked out quickly, but Derek swore he thought he saw a shadow in the corner. Probably just my imagination. This class is weird all around.

 

 

Damien toyed with the ring on his finger. He was deep in thought as he watched his cousin show his father’s ring to a girl. It was so close…and yet he couldn’t get it. As long as Derek was never alone, Damien could not retrieve the ring from him.

It was frustrating! But not impossible…

How naïve, for Leann to give Marcus’s ring to Derek; an irresponsible fifteen year old! Did she really think he wouldn’t check to see if his indolent cousin had it? It was too easy. As long as Derek didn’t learn what it could do, it would be like taking candy from a baby.

He laughed as he saw the girl tug his cousin’s arm. Yes, they would sense his presence in the room. Derek cast one quick look around the room before he left, and caught sight of the place where Damien was standing.

Damien stiffened, and then relaxed as Derek retreated out of the classroom.

Too easy, he thought. I’ll have to make this more exciting.

 

Author's Note

Thanks for the Review. This was kind of a Pilot, amnd I've decided to go on with the book. I promise it will be like nothing you've ever read :) And If so...OH WELL.

Reviews

[Thomas Pynk]

Yes please. I look forward to seeing what happens next.
very well written and kept my interest the whole way through.
With All Due Respect,
Thomas Pynk

[DaGirlNxtDoor]

wow! that is probably the best first chapter i have ever read in my life! cant wait to see what happens!

[ape domenigoni]

wow, this is a very intriguing story, I'm curious to know what else will happen. Yes, definitely keep writing it, I'd hate to get all into it and then have no ending to read! lol

[Ryan]

Wow I love it so far! But you spelled curious wrong haha. Otherwise...OMG you write soooo much better than me! It's amazing! Can't wait for more! :D